The Winton 300 is Back!

It’s the race that captures imaginations, breaks hearts and never fails to deliver the unexpected; it’s the Winton 300 and it’s returning – in a big way – on 18-20th November 2022, as the curtain-closer for this year’s AMRS season.The Winton 300 is a race synonymous with the nation’s action track. From the mid-1980s through to the early 90s, it was a round of the Australian Production Car Championship and attracted a who’s who of Aussie motorsport from the era, with names like Peter Brock (along with his brother Phil), Alan Grice, Brad Jones, John Bowe, Neil Crompton and many others lining up for their shot at glory.The race went on hiatus before it was re-introduced in 2003, as a round of the V8 Supercars Championship. While Marcos Ambrose took a dominant victory in the ’03 edition, the ’04 race was a bizarre affair which saw multiple cars stranded in the mud, numerous Safety Car interventions and a plethora of lead changes before Cameron McConville finally pounced on Rick Kelly for the win in the second-last corner on the 100th and final lap.With the V8s reverting to a multi-race format at Winton after 2004, the Winton 300 was again shelved until it reappeared in 2011, with a format harking back to its production car roots and continuing to produce amazing storylines.So, let’s have a look at some of the more enlightening chapters in the Winton 300 story, starting with the race’s resurrection in 2011:Pure classWhen the Winton 300 returned in 2011, it was David Raddatz and Shane Otten who taught the rest of the field a lesson in endurance racing. They qualified third on the grid but importantly, didn’t break into the fastest division, ensuring they only needed a single pit stop.After qualifying, Raddatz and Otten’s main rival appeared to be the Stephen Anslow/Hayden Pullen Mazda RX7 which qualified on pole by a healthy margin, and seemed to have more than enough pace to make up for the extra five-minute stop imposed upon cars that had qualified in Division A.But the Anslow/Pullen entry fell victim to the hurdle that trips up so many contenders: reliability. The V8 RX7 was ruled out with an engine problem early and the other Division A car – the Nathan Jess/Matthew Thomson Future Racer - was off the pace in the second half of the race with a broken sway bar. This cleared the way for Raddatz/Otten to drive their naturally-aspirated Mazda MX5 to an unchallenged victory, a lap ahead of their nearest rivals.Upset resultBefore the 2012 Winton 300, all the attention was focused on the Future Racer of Nathan Jess and Matthew Thomson, who had dominated every practice and qualifying session. But everyone forgot about another Future Racer – the Jeff Davy/Chad Cotton entry.Davy/Cotton’s approach to the race was best described as stealthy - they qualified in ninth, and Davy quietly slotted into a top six position in the opening stint where stayed out of trouble, keeping the front-runners in sight while maintaining a pace that preserved the car’s essential components.By the time Cotton took over for the run to the flag, the Jess/Thomson entry (along with several other Division A contenders) had fallen by the wayside with mechanical problems and Cotton found himself in podium contention.When two other Division B front-runners experienced dramas (a tyre failure for the Steve/Jake Shelley Mitsubishi Evo and drive-through penalty for the Daniel Kapetanovic/David Krusza BMW M3), Cotton hit the lead. He and Davy ended up winning the race and broke three records that still stand today: race record time, biggest winning margin, and lowest grid position for the winning car.Hard work pays offThe 2011 and 2012 300s had not been kind to Rob Hay and Nick Cancian, mechanical problems sidelining them early in both races - but they made up for it in 2013.After qualifying their turbocharged Mazda MX5 in Division A, Hay and Cancian had to make two compulsory five-minute pit stops and cleverly executed both stops under Safety Car conditions, even though this meant a third stop for a driver change late in the race to ensure Hay did not exceed his maximum number of laps.The upshot of the smart strategy was that Cancian was on the lead lap late in the race. One more Safety Car allowed him to close the gap to the leading Chad Cotton/Jase Collins entry, which he had the pace to overhaul inside the last five laps during a frantic sprint to the line.With long-time Winton CEO Mick Ronke passing away earlier in the year, Cancian and Hay had the honour of being the first drivers to have their names engraved on the Michael J Ronke Memorial Trophy, which has been presented to the winners of the Winton 300 every year since.The Lap That CountsAfter qualifying their Future Racer in Division A and being required to make two compulsory pit stops, Nathan Jess and Matthew Thomson were always going to face a challenge in the 2014 Winton 300, and a spate of Safety Cars early in the race made the task of unlapping themselves a difficult one, even if it minimised the pain of the second pit stop.Nevertheless, Jess and Thomson toiled away and managed to unlap themselves from the leading David Raddatz and Shane Otten Mazda MX5 with around 35 laps to go. However, with around 90 seconds to make up, victory looked unlikely unless there was a further Safety Car intervention.Fortunately for Jess and Thomson, it came with eight laps remaining to set up a grandstand finish and to further add to the drama, the Raddatz/Otten car was black-flagged for excessive smoke and forced to pit from the lead with just three laps to go.That handed the lead to the Michael Caine/Gerry Murphy Mazda RX7, before Jess launched a passing move on the very last lap, in a scenario reminiscent of Cam McConville’s dramatic late lunge on Rick Kelly a decade before.Just like Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris in the Bathurst 1000 that had been held four weeks prior, Jess and Thomson only led one lap of the race, but it was the lap that counted; The 2014 Winton 300 remains one of the most exciting races ever held at Winton.Doubling UpIn 2014 and ‘15, there were so many entries for the Winton 300 the field had to be split into two races - the main race for the outright cars and a “B-Main” for the slower cars.The 2015 B-Main produced another classic finish, the Jason Miller/Paul Crocitti Porsche 944 coming out on top after a late duel with the Parry Anastakis/John Taylor Peugeot 205.The big wet2016 saw the worst weather conditions in Winton 300 history.Car after car was caught out by the poor visibility and slippery track surface – the exit of Turn 2 proved particularly difficult for drivers to negotiate, with a number of cars firing into the wall separating the old pit lane from the circuit.On a day where just staying on the track was an accomplishment, there were no less than eight Safety Car interventions and coming through the chaos to take his second Winton 300 win was Nathan Jess, sharing his Future Racer with Ryan Reynolds while Henry Draper and Linda Devlin took full advantage of the predictable front-wheel-drive handling and ABS brakes of their Mini Challenge car to finish a giant-killing second outright.Overcoming adversityAfter the Winton 300 has finished and the teams are packing up their cars and trailers, a walk through the paddock never fails to reveal plenty of stories from drivers who could have, would have, should have won the race.Adam and Craig Burgess had plenty of those sorts of stories – while they had started every Winton 300 since 2012, their finishing record had left much to be desired, with a spectacular crash in the wet in their Ginetta during the 2016 race the latest in a series of miserable tales.However, the Burgesses made up for it in 2017, leading from the front in their Ginetta. Even though they fell out of the lead during the inevitable pit stop cycles, the father-and-son duo never looked like losing the race, ultimately taking victory by more than a minute from the well-driven Parry Anastakis/Matt Thewlis Peugeot 205.The race returns…From 2018 to 2020, the Winton 300 took another sabbatical before it returned in a low-key way last year, with just five cars taking the start. While the grid size was small, the race itself was an interesting affair with the Tony/Troy Heasley Commodore overtaking the Parry Anatakis/Angus Lithgow Peugeot 206 just five laps from the finish.But while 2021 was modest, the 2022 edition of the race – which will also see the return of a live stream and television package – is set to revive the glory days of one of Australia’s most prestigious club-level endurance races.